Latest News

By Ray Hickson

Not all high class three-year-olds make the transition at four but trainer David Payne is confident his dual Group 1 winner Montefilia is one that will.

The mare was a spring star last year winning the Group 1 Flight Stakes and Spring Champion Stakes in successive weeks while in the autumn was placed in the Rosehill Guineas, ran fourth in the ATC Derby and fifth in the Oaks.

The Rosehill trainer has won three editions of the Group 2 $250,000 Heineken Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) with mares – both Unearthly (2004), who scored first-up, and Nevis (2005) won as a spring four-year-old while Gallant Tess (2008) was a five-year-old - and is adamant she's as good as any of them.

“All my good fillies trained on without a problem, they got better when they got older,’’ Payne said.

“She will definitely get better, she was a light filly and didn’t carry a lot of condition but is much stronger now.”

Payne has been patient with Montefilia this time around and has given her plenty of grounding, with trials in mid-July and mid-August, to ensure she’s competitive fresh at Randwick on Saturday.

Montefilia runs second in a trial at Rosehill on August 13

Earlier this year she found 1400m too sharp when she resumed in the Group 1 Surround Stakes and Payne said he wants the mare to be in a position where Josh Parr can ensure she’s not conceding an impossible start.

She drifted from an $8.50 opening price to $13 with TAB on Thursday after drawing wide.

“You need a lot of groundwork to run her over a bit of distance, if I ran her in a 1400m race it’s just a waste of time,’’ he said.

“I thought I’d rather go 1600m then to the 2000m.

“When you’re kicking off you want them to be comfortable, we don’t want to knock her about first-up because she might have a long campaign.

“All going well she will run a very good race. She’s strong and I’m very pleased with her. She might end up three wide I suppose but I don’t want to pull her to last.”

As Payne alluded, Montefilia will progress to the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) in two weeks with the Group 1 $750,000 Heineken The Metropolitan (2400m) on October 2 her immediate aim.

Meanwhile, Payne is throwing talented three-year-old Gleneagles into next week’s Group 2 Run To The Rose (1200m) at Kembla Grange after a pleasing return at the same track last Saturday.

The colt finished a close third behind Andermatt in a 1000m dash and will likely meet stiff opposition including Anamoe, Stay Inside and Captivant.

“I know it’s going to be a hot field but we’ve got to test him and see how good he is against those good ones,’’ Payne said.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Randwick meeting